USC takes the field against Oregon on Saturday. The Trojans need to win this game to make the College Football Playoff. They need to win in order to have a chance at reaching the Big Ten Championship Game. They need this win if they want to notch a 10-win regular season, which should be the annual minimum standard at USC. They need to win this game to boost their national recruiting profile. Most of all, though, USC needs to win this game to escape Oregon’s long shadow.
USC won the Rose Bowl in the 2016 college football season. It won the Pac-12 championship in 2017. Those are the only two seasons since the end of the Pete Carroll era in which the Trojans reached the standard they are expected to attain on a consistent basis. The 2022 team came close, but it lost both the Pac-12 title game and its New Year’s Six bowl game. That’s not quite good enough at USC, even though the 2022 team was still a breath of fresh air after the Clay Helton era sputtered to an end.
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The larger point is clear: USC really hasn’t done much of anything since Pete Carroll left, except for Sam Darnold‘s two transformative seasons. Meanwhile, in the time the Trojans have floundered, Oregon has displaced the Trojans as the premier program in the West. Washington had the 2016 playoff season and the 2023 national runner-up season, but Oregon has been more consistent than either USC or UW since 2010, making multiple national championship games, winning multiple BCS (now New Year’s Six) bowls, reaching last season’s playoff semifinal round, and generally having more standout seasons than the Trojans or Huskies. Chip Kelly got the ball rolling. Marcus Mariota produced his supreme 2014 Heisman Trophy season. Mario Cristobal won a Rose Bowl and a Pac-12 title. Dan Lanning has improved upon what Cristobal built. Oregon has been nationally relevant with noticeable regularity. USC has occasionally been relevant. That’s the difference between UO and USC over the past 16 years.
Now it’s time for USC to return to being what it was under Pete Carroll. We keep talking about it and hoping for it because it still hasn’t happened. USC finally gets Oregon at home again for the first time in a regular-season game since 2019. There’s a huge “if not now, when?” quality to this game, this moment. If USC can’t get out of Oregon’s shadow in 2026, when will it happen? It’s time, USC. It’s time to end this period of Oregon’s superiority once and for all.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: It’s time for USC and Lincoln Riley to escape Oregon’s long shadow
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